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The soft patter of Zinnia's footsteps echoed in her ears as she descended the stairs in the early morning. She rubbed her eyes tiredly as she mindlessly flung the kitchen door open, making a beeline for the small tin pot of coffee that someone had already made.

Her morning tended to follow like this. Zinnia got very little rest in the dingy house and seemed that she could never stay asleep for more than an hour or two at a time. In a drowsy state she grabbed a mug from the cupboard above her and messily poured her coffee in it, wishing she had worn some socks as her feet were getting particularly cold.

"Morning" the deep voice of Sirius spoke from the end of the kitchen table with a newspaper covering his face. Zinnia almost leapt out of her skin, spilling a bit of coffee of herself as she turned around.

"Merlin, you gave me a heart attack" she whispered to herself as she regained herself.

"Sorry, didn't mean to startle you" Sirius lowered the paper and gestured to the seat next to him for Zinnia to sit down.

"It's alright, woke me up a bit" she quietly chuckled as she sat down in the chair next to him. She idly sipped her coffee as Sirius eyed her. Zinnia noticed this but decided not to mention it, she brushed it off as a habit he had gained after being locked up for so long.

"What are you doing up so early?" he asked as his eyes returned to the paper.

"Cant really sleep much" she shrugged, not wanting to cause a worry. She bunched up her long shirt into her fist and brought her hand up to pick at her lip, a habit she had acquired as a consequence of the stress of the impending war.

"I could never really sleep here much as a kid either, only found myself making it through the night at Hogwarts" Sirius reflected looking longingly out of the kitchen door.

"You grew up here?" Zinnia asked as she took another sip of her dark coffee, snapping him out of his gaze.

"Yes, yes. Not the best of times but it could have been worse." Sirius humbly admitted looking around the room. She nodded and held her mug close to her chest, finding comfort in the warmth from the ceramic.

"Zinnia... I thought it best I let you know.... That was bringing Harry here tonight." Sirius gently spoke in hesitance to the girl

"Oh. I thought he-" Zinnia asked, remembering hearing that Harry was safer with the Dursleys.

"There was an incident last night, the ministry.... They expelled Harry for defending himself against a dementor" Sirius spoke carefully, trying to break the news to the girl.

"What? He can't be expelled. We can stop this right?!" Zinnia shot up, her slouching position turning into a confident stance as if she was ready to march into the Ministry at that moment and demand they revoke Harry's expulsion; and honestly, she was.

"He has a trial, don't worry. That's why we're bringing him here" Sirius placed his hand gently on the girl's arms, guiding her into her seat again. Zinnia's stomach ran with nerves as she settled back into the fragile wooden chair. "You don't seem too excited to see him" Sirius asked after Zinnia stared at the cracks of the table in contemplation.

"Things are a bit unclear with us, worse now that I can't write to him him properly" Zinnia spoke without really thinking about who she was talking to, she honestly was dying to let it out but refused to tell anyone unless they asked.

"Unclear?" Sirius said with a sigh, raising his eyebrows at the girl. Zinnia did not respond and only looked at him then finished off her coffee. It was no secret that Zinnia was terrible at communicating her feelings and it didn't change for anyone let alone Sirius.

Zinnia stood up and placed her mug in the sink to which the sponge moved straight to it thanks to all of Molly's charms she put on the kitchen. She couldn't help but smile a little thinking back to the warm glow to the burrow and how it was bathed in light like a pool of honey. Reality hit her when she looked up at the room bathed in dust particles almost giving it a foggy gloom.

"Goodbye Sirius" Zinnia muttered as she exited the kitchen back to the bedroom. She checked the clock on the wall and saw it was around 8 am and figured that everyone would be getting out of bed soon. Slowly creeping back into her room she tried not to wake up the sleeping Poppy but didn't worry too much as she was a heavy sleeper. Zinnia walked over to the window where Maurice had perched himself, purring at what little light came through the dark and rusted glass. 

Before she turned around she felt the tapping against the frame, opening it slightly to see Hedwig eagerly awaiting a snack. Zinnia let her in and fetched some spare food she had in her trunk. Zinnia let out a heavy breath at the letter scratched with Harry's writing and gently opened it.

Zinnia,
I don't know when you're getting this, Hedwig seems to find it harder and harder to find you but it's getting lonely. Summer is the same and the Dursley's are the same.

I've noticed your letters are getting shorter. You used to write me pages and I miss them. Did I do something? I'm sorry if I did. Please talk to me Z. I need you.

Harry.

Zinnia's heart broke as she read the words he had written. She sat on the edge of her bed and covered her face with her hands, forcing the tears back into her eyes. Normally she wouldn't be as affected by his words but everything that happened made her feel utter guilt. She understood her instructions but wanted nothing more than to write a ten page reply detailing every single emotion she had felt since leaving him at the train station.

Hedwig brought Zinnia out of her state as she pecked her hand, not stopping until Zinnia got up from her bed to reply. She angrily picked up the quill at the desk and dipped it in her ink, hovering over the parchment not quite sure what to write.

Harry,
Sorry about the letters, I'm not mad at you. My family has been driving me nuts is all.

Zinnia's quill hovered over the paper desperately, her head telling her to stop there, the little voice of Dumbeldore ringing in her ears telling her it is Imperative Harry knows nothing. She just wanted to curse him out and walk to Harry's house herself but she knew this was bigger than her.

Zinnia

She signed off hesitantly, much to Hedwig's disappointment who nawed at her fingers until Zinnia gave her the sealed envelope and flew away in annoyance.

"What's all that noise?" the muffled voice of Poppy came from the pile of pillows in her bed.

"Just Hedwig, Pop" Zinnia sighed as she scratched the neck of Maurice and watched the shedding hair fall to the greying carpet.

"Will he ever stop writing to you, it's getting annoying" she murmured as she turned over in her bed. Zinnia chuckled as she made her way to the door of the room.

"Get out of bed you lazy sod" she directed to Poppy as she walked through the door. She made her way down the hall and to Hermione and Ginny's room to knock on the door. Hermione immediately swung it open, fully dressed and ready for the day. Zinnia felt a bit stupid in that moment, still in her knit sweater and plaid pajama pants.

"Zinnia! Good you're up" Hermione beamed as she pulled the sleepy girl into the room. "You look tired" Hermione said as she lifted Zinnia's head to see her eye bags.

"Just can't sleep" she knocked away the girl's hand and sat on the edge of Ginny's bed who was almost non visible of not for her vibrant red hair poking through the sheets.

"I've been trying to get her up for a while" Hermione chuffed as she organised the room. Zinnia chuckled as Ginny poked out her hand and displayed a rather crude finger to the stressed girl.

"Hey, have you been getting letters from harry?" Zinnia asked, picking at her nails, not quite sure if Hermione knew if he was coming tonight but unsure if she was even allowed to tell her.

"A few, so has Ron but they're mostly just complaining that we don't talk to him enough" Hermione fussed as she made her bed.

"Can't blame him, I feel completely guilty though" Zinnia confided, once again lifting her fingers to her mouth to pick at the loose skin on her lips.

"That's because you two are practically married" Ginny muffled from her bedsheets, emerging from the hole of fabric she had created. Zinnia momentarily felt a pang of guilt talking about Harry in front of Ginny since she had liked him forever, but right now she seemed rather unphased by it.

"Hmm" Zinnia let out, looking into her lap. Ginny and Hermione looked at each other in suspicion at the girl's odd reaction.

"We kissed last year." she simply stated. It was like the words cut through the air like a knife, they sounded so real ringing through her ears and she almost didn't believe it herself despite the prominent memory of Harry's gentle lips on hers.

"I figured as such" Hermione laughed after both the girls in the room gaped at Zinnia. "Don't know why you didn't feel the need to tell me though" Hermione stopped what she was doing and sat down on Ginny's bed next to Zinnia.

"Shut up and tell me everything" Ginny laughed at the girl, Zinnia returned a simple chuckle, still not making complete eye contact with the girls.

'Well I went to wish him good luck and, all the arguing just sort of slipped from our memories and... he kissed me" Zinnia softly spoke, smiling at the memory.

"So what's the issue?" Hermione asked, still seeing the worry in her friend's face. Zinnia hesitated for a moment and looked at the girl's faces for the first time since she had begun talking.

"We decided.. It would be better if Harry had space to process Cedric and everything" Zinnia recounted as she leant back on the bed in a sigh. "Now I can't talk to him and we might have had too much space and he thinks I hate him and he might hate me" Zinnia began to ramble with her hands over her face before grunting in frustration.

"You guys cant have anything simple can you" Ginny laughed as she got out of bed and picked out clothes from her trunk.

"Hermione, there has got to be a book for this" Zinnia fake cried as she pouted to her friend.

"I hate to admit it, but books can only get you so far" Hermione smiled gently at the girl as she brushed hair off of her friend's face. Zinnia grunted into her pillow and threw it playfully at Hermione as she blocked the hit with a laugh.

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Zinnia lay on the couch with Daisy in her lap, the small girl deep in sleep whilst Zinnia absentmindedly flicked through her favourite parts of Little Women that Harry got her. Zinnia looked at her little sister and sighed for her, like Zinnia, Daisy had been getting little sleep after being terrified of the house. The gentle soul was only a mere four almost five and Zinnia's heart ached every time she walked into her room in the middle of the night to sleep in her bed.

Zinnia heard the clutter of people enter the house as they piled into the kitchen for an order meeting. She smiled to herself as she heard the voice of Violet directing people into the room and Basil teasing her. Zinnia looked up to her sister's courage at joining the order right after graduation.

Suddenly she heard a familiar french accent echoed from the hall to the living room. Zinnia's head perked up and she gently moved Daisy off of her legs. She sighed in relief when she didn't wake up and Zinnia ran to the hall to spot Tallon walking down with an older wizard and witch behind her.

"Zinnia!" Tallon shrieked as she ran to the girl, both of them hugging gleefully.

"Tallon! What are you doing here?" Zinnia laughed as she let the tall girl go. Tallon had certainly grown into her personality during the summer, no longer being restricted by school as she adorned a simple black skirt with the same shade sweater.

"My parents and I, we are in the order now. My mother went to Hogwarts and worked for the original army." Tallon explained as she pointed to her parents that were entering the bustling kitchen.

"Zinnia!" Molly called out from behind the girl "Oh, you've met the beautiful Tallon, we should be starting soon" Molly smiled at the tall french woman as Tallon waved goodbye to Zinnia and headed for the kitchen. Zinnia peered over Molly's shoulder as she tried to get a look at the meeting.

"Zinnia dear, I think it would be best if you headed upstairs" Molly caught her attention and looked into her eyes. Zinnia understood she couldn't be there for the meeting and headed to the living room. Zinnia picked up her sleeping sister and carried her up the stairs carefully, trying not to wake her up.

Once she had placed Daisy in her bed she wandered over to Ron's room. She headed in without knocking as her head was in a fuzz of anxiety and curiosity. As soon as she entered Hermione and Ron gave her a nauseous look.

"What's the look for?" Zinnia bluntly asked, waking over to the spare bed next to Ron's and planting herself there with a thud.

"Harry's coming soon" Hermione apprehensively uttered, looking at her friend for any inkling of her mood. Zinnia stopped moving for a moment as her face dropped.

"Yeah, I know." Zinnia scrunched her face as she crossed her legs on the bed. Zinnia would have loved to pretend that she simply forgot that small detail but there was no denying that Harry had been the only thing on her mind since Sirius uttered his name that early morning.

"Think he'll be pretty pissed?" Ron addressed the room, relaxing his posture at Zinnia's simple answer.

"Well if Hedwig has any inclination to his mood then I think we're in trouble" Zinnia chuckled to her lap.

"You too huh?" Ron laughed at her as he held up his hands which were covered in bandages from Hegwig's nipping. Zinnia smiled and lifted her hands too which showed the cuts that she had left unbandaged. She honestly didn't think about covering them as looking at them reminded her that it was her punishment for not talking to Harry.

"I just hope he doesn't get expelled" Hemione stressed as she played with the ends of her hair. As if it had summoned him, the door opened at exactly at that moment to reveal an apprehensive Harry in the doorway.

"Harry!" Hermione gasped as she leapt out of her chair and straight over to tackle Harry in a hug "Are you alright? We overheard them talking about the dementor attack." Hermione breathed as Ron walked towards Harry. Zinnia's head turned to Harry but she stayed on the bed. "You must tell us everything!" Hermione gasped in a fuss.

"Let the man breathe Hermione '' Ron spoke as he moved away from the door and back to the chair he was sitting in, followed by Hermione.  The two moving out of the way allowed Harry to spot Zinnia idly sitting  on the bed.

Zinnia's breath hitched as she saw him properly for the first time. He was noticeably taller and his hair shorter. She would have blushed at how handsome he had gotten in not for her insane amount of worry on what he was thinking.

Harry thought she was breathtaking as usual. The blind anger he had towards her for not writing vanished in an instant. Although she was more pale from the absence of the summer sun and her eyes were a little more sunken, she was more beautiful than ever.

Zinnia didn't think twice when leaping off of the bet to embrace him in a hug, he seemed to be thinking the same thing as he held out his arms for her. They could have stayed in that embrace forever as Zinnia took in everything about him and smiling at it was a but harder to wrap her hands around his entire body.

Zinnia slowly parted from Harry as they looked at each other's eyes, both swimming with grief and worry.

"And this hearing at the Ministry! It's just outrageous. I've looked it up, they simply can't expel you it's completely unfair" Hermonie interrupted from where she stood. Harry faced her and moved around the room.

"Yeah, there's a lot of that going around at the moment,'' Harry remarked as he walked. "So what is this place?" Harry asked, studying the decaying walls.

"Its headquarters" Ron mumbled, following Harry's eyes.

"For the order of the phoenix" Hermione excitedly burst out.

"It's a secret society, Dumbeldore formed it back when they first fought Voldemort" Zinnia mentioned as she leant against the frame of the bed closest to the door.

"Couldn't have put any of this in a letter I suppose?" Harry aggressively remarked looking straight at Zinnia. Zinnia felt her heart break at that moment, although he didn't mean it, Harry's words stung her.

"Harry I-" she begun in a broken voice

"I've gone all summer without a scrap of news!" He interrupted as he raised his voice.

"Not her fault mate, we wanted to write, really we did only.." Ron defended the sullen faced girl.

"Only what?!"

"Only Dumbeldore made us swear not to tell you anything!" Hermione spilled to the aggravated Harry. There was a moment of shock from Harry as he turned to Zinnia to confirm this.

"Dumbeldore said that?" he breathed out. Zinnia nodded her head and looked down at her feet, not finding the courage to look harry in the eye

"But why would he want to keep me in the dark? I mean maybe I could help? After all, I'm the one who saw Voldemort return; I'm the one who fought him; I'm the one who saw Cedric Diggory get killed!" Harry's voice rose into a yell as his three friends flinched at every word. Zinnia wanted nothing more than this pit of guilt to disappear from her stomach.

Suddenly Harry was interrupted by the quick jolt of Fred and George apperating beside him.

"Harry" Fred stated confidently with his hand on Harry's shoulder. Harry stumbled back at the shock as the two boys surrounded him.

"Thought we heard your dulcet tones" George teased, pushing Harry back.

"Don't bottle it up, though, mate. Let it out." Fred finished

"Anyway if you're all done shouting"

"Do you want to hear something a little more interesting?" Fred suggested with a sly smirk to Harry.

"What the hell are you two up to?" Zinnia asked, crossing her arm and smirking at the mischievous nature of the twins that never seemed to fade.

"Got it guys!" the voice of Aster burst through the door as he held a small ear like object in his hand

"Aster what the hell is that?" Zinnia asked him, walking towards the door as he left for the hallway. Everyone followed them out to the edge of the stairs as Aster passed the ear to the twins.

"What's going on?" Poppy asked as she came out of her and Zinnia's room to be involved

"Why is everyone huddling?" Prim asked as she passed the group.

Everyone shushed them as they gathered around the railing at the stairs. Fred gave everyone a wink as he slowly started to lower the year doen the gap in the flight of stairs.

"If it wasn't for Harry we wouldn't even know Voldemort was back" the voice of Sirius rang through the other end of the ear that Fred held in the middle of the group so everyone could hear. "He's not a child, Molly"

"He's not an adult either! He's not James, Sirius"Molly's large voice came from the ear, Zinnia looked over to Harry's concerned face for a second, knowing he wouldn't like being talked about secretly. Harry merely connected his eyes with her and looked back down at the stairs.

"He's not your son"

"He's as good as, who else has he got?"

"How touchingly paternal, Black. Perhaps Potter will grow up to be a felon just like his Godfather" Snapes twangy voice echoed through the ear

"Oh you stay out of this Snivelus" Sirius shot back

"Snape's a part of the order?" Harry asked Ron.

"Git" is all Ron replied with before Fred and George noticed Maurice and Crookshanks eyeing the ear. They batted at it until they both got a grip and held it to the ground

"Maurice, stop it!"

"Crookshanks leave it alone!" The girls rang out, but the cats got to it too quickly and they ran off with the severed ear to play with.

"Hermione, Zinnia, I hate your cat's" Eon blurted out once the sound of Snape's voice was completely cut off.

"He didn't do anything! Do you seriously expect the cat not to play with a toy you angle in its face?" Zinnia replied, poking her tongue out at Ron.

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(A.N- okay first of all i would like to say THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR 1K ily all of you reading this book

also get ready for some angsty Zinnia and Harry. ik these Grimmauld place chapters feel tedious but i promise next chapter will be the last one before they go to school.

comments and voted always loved 💕)